Bed-tax collections rise in July

By
Jim Abbott

Posted Sep 10, 2018 at 11:58 AM

In a month notable for the return of Shriners for the group's second consecutive summer convention in Daytona Beach, tourism bed-tax revenues in Volusia County increased overall in July, rising 2.5 percent year-over-year according to figures released on Monday by the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County.

MONTHLY COLLECTION NUMBERS: Hotels, vacation rental properties and campgrounds throughout the county generated $2,694,004 in bed taxes, up from $2,629,193 in July 2017, according to the Volusia County Revenue Division.

In a breakdown of collections by the county's three tourism advertising authorities, the Halifax area increased by 2.5 percent year-over-year to $1,031,281 for July, compared with $1,006,354 for the same month a year ago. In Southeast Volusia, collections dipped by 2.8 percent to $252,535, compared with $259,845 in July 2017. In West Volusia, collections were up 33.4 percent to $58,621, compared with $43,941 in July 2017.

The West Volusia total included $10,080 in prior months' collections.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Bed-tax collections are seen as a health indicator for the tourism industry.

The county collects a 6 percent tourism tax on hotels and lodges with half of the revenues going to fund the county-run beachside Ocean Center convention complex in Daytona Beach.

The other half goes to the county's three tourism ad authorities to market their respective areas — the Daytona Beach/Halifax area, Southeast Volusia and West Volusia — as destinations for tourists and special events.

INDUSTRY OBSERVER'S TAKE: "It was another good month," said Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County. "We did have a rainy, rainy season, but I'm pleased with it; it shows that we're doing well. The Shriners were here, but I don't' know if they added anything to it. You (The News-Journal) did a really good job of covering the results of that, so there's not much left to say."

SOSEScript: ampanalytics.php5 failed executing with the following error:
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:1407742E:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert protocol version
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(): Failed to enable crypto
Error on line 12 position 1: file_get_contents(http://www.news-journalonline.com/?template=ampanalytics): failed to open stream: operation failed
Error on line 19 position 1: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()